I'm Michelle. This is my blog. I write about women and fatness, expound upon semi-coherent thoughts I have in the middle of the night, and offer tough love to those in whom I am disappointed; they are legion.

I should have clarified, it was one of those completely off tangent comments. It had nothing to do with skinny jeans. My apologies. It’s just girls younger and younger keep growing up faster and faster and it’s society, music, parenting, and many other factors to blame as well as young men.

Some kids don’t have those problems but more kids do every generation and it’s scary.

I agree, woman should be allowed to wear what they want period. The stereotype of “boys will be boys” is dispicable and idiotic. Both men and woman are conditioned at birth to think, act, and behave a certain way. Some say its human nature but where do you see cave drawing with guys drooling over a woman’s clothes, nowhere. I woud love to go more in-depth, but I’m afraid it will turn into a rant.

Bottom line ladies, if a guy looks you up and down or stares at a certain spot fill free to knock some sense into him (pun intended).

I agree! I’m so tired of the “boys will be boys” mentality. Why must women change because boys and men can’t control themselves. Also that mentality blames and shames women. Society is basically saying that women’s bodies are distracting and need to be covered. It’s wrong!

I recall a time in high school gym class that the girls were told not to wear tight shorts anymore because we (the boys) were all staring at them instead of paying attention whatever running-around-with-a-ball thing was happening. No one ever pulled us (boys) aside and said, “Stop staring at the girls’ backsides.” Some stuff never changes.

There was a crazy story last Spring about a girl who was sent home from the prom for looking too sexy her her dress. It was a private school. The dress technically was appropriate and met the dress code for prom, but she just had such a rockin body that the dads chaperoning couldn’t stand it.

Students should dress respectfully out of respect for their teacher and peers. The attire you choose to wear to school should be conducive to enhancing the learning environment, it should neither provocative nor distracting. Of course everyone has the liberty to dress how they like, everyone has the liberty to say what they like. People also have the liberty to dislike people who try to garner attention by dressing inappropriately and speaking ill informed rubbish.

As in this case the young women in question are simply wearing pants, I would against suggest that provocation and distraction are are the problem of the people doing the staring, not the young women.

Frankly, as long as what they’re wearing is within the school’s dress code and/or covers all the essential bits — as many dress codes are also designed to “protect” our feckless male students — I would suggest that that is the case.

You are, of course, free to personally dislike what young people wear. But to assume they are stupid and/or impose dress codes based on what is, essentially, a personal preference about how young people should dress/behave seems problematic.

My point, which I should have made more clearly, is simply that I don’t think it matters why these young women choose to wear what they wear. They might wear skinny jeans because they think they look hot. They might wear them because they’re comfy. They might wear them because they like the way the pants make them feel. Either way, the onus of controlling one’s reaction is on the person doing the reacting.

And the reason that most women choose most their clothing is to make them look more attractive. Nothing would upset women more than a society that ignored how they look. Just look at the fashion industry, cosmetics and cosmetic surgery. How women look is a huge industry, and the way women want to look is attractive. Looking attractive attractive is by its very nature to the wish to provoke a response.

The level of response must be controlled by the responder, but it is perfectly legitimate for a response to be to feel uncomfortable. I am sure women would feel uncomfortable sat next to a man wearing just underpants, rightly so, because their clothing is inappropriate.

Places and circumstances dictate tu us propriety and require us to adapt. It would be disrespectful to wear hot pants to a funeral, likewise some clothing is less appropriate for school.

Sadly the situation requires the application of that most endangered of species “common sense”. People have the right to dress how they like, but they have no right to expect others to be comfortable with it. As far as I am aware the right to govern ones own feelings is pretty fundamental.